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Sunday, January 22, 2017

'East' from SidneyR: 17th Century Eastern Light Cavalry

“Each man has only two pistols and a sword for offensive purposes, namely for pursuing the foe when he is in flight rather for the act of routing him. There can be no question that the Hungarian, Croats and other kinds of persons much employed in the Imperial army are perfectly suited for such assignments” (Raymond Montecuccoli, Sulle Battaglie, 1640-1642)

I love the thought of light cavalry swirling onto the flanks of armies, or screening an advance of slower infantry and cavalry. And the place I always think of such cavalry being most at home is in Eastern Europe. In the Seventeenth Century, no Imperial army would have been complete without regiments of Croatian and Hungarian cavalry preceding any advance. They were present in numbers at the battles of Lutzen and Nordlingen and numerous other engagements. I also think it’s reasonable to field them later, through the 1650s and the Second Northern war, right into the 1680s as mercenaries for campaigns as far apart as Livonia and Germany.

I’ve prepared a few figures here for the ‘East’ theme, both in 28mm (with figures from The Assault Group), and 2mm (with figures from Irregular Miniatures for my Thirty Years War collection). They’re on different bases - an Autumnal theme for the larger figures, and the frosted-hard ground of Lutzen for the 2mm figures.

Are they quintessentially ‘Eastern’ - I think so, and at the very least, they’re certainly east of Flanders!